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Best thing about Hampshire is that you can do most of what you want. The last year at Hampshire is spent working on one large project. There are no majors, just concentrations. Between these two facts you have a lot of leeway in terms of elective courses, and changeing your concentration relatively late in the game. This is combination with the resources available through the five college system make for a flexible high quality education experience. The other five colleges are UMass, Holyoke, Smith, and Amherst.
The school is the correct size. If it was much bigger it would probably not be possible to have so much freedom. If it was much smaller it mite not exist.
The town in the surrounding area is pretty decent. If you come from a major city you might find it a bit rural. If you are outgoing and look around there are plenty of things to do between the five colleges.
The Hampshire is pretty bureaucratic. But like many things at Hampshire the bureaucracy is half flexible. Sometimes you can do as you please and miss a deadline long as you talk to the rite people, other times you could fail because you forgot to turn in a form.

Very white student body. Quite a number of wealthy kids, but they are balanced off by the numerous receivers of financial aid. It makes an odd combination some times.
People are friendly but there are also a great deal of introverts at hampshire. The sense of community is a little iffy. They only really pull together when some one throws a campaign about some issue or another. Hot topics are race and sex.
Students are almost entirely liberals a couple of anarchists sprinkled in, and supposedly a few republicans. There are students who are politically active but mostly students like to talk about the hot topics mentioned above without an understanding of the big picture, and sometimes without an understanding of the small picture either. This being said Hampshire is proportionatly political when compared with other colleges that I have visited.

There is a lot of pot smoking. There are many smart Hampshire students but a fair amount of disorganized idiots. People are some times over sensitive about issues but unaware of the actual workings of the issue itself. Hampshire is basically white, and the multi cultural portion of Hampshire mostly segregates itself from the rest.

Class size is small, and intro level courses are normally really terrible. Some of the more advanced classes are good. Students in these classes are normally self motivated and already knowledgeable on the subject. Students are not competitive at all. It's a very friendly learning environment.
On the other hand you would be a fool to take all your classes at Hampshire. Any student worth his salt in any field takes classes off campus to supplement Hampshire's limited course selection.
Hampshire probably won't get you a job, but it's fairly well looked upon by graduate schools. I came here because you can study for the sake of learning.
Relationships with professors are normally friendly and informal. I have had more than one professor ask to be called by their first name. Students have been known to grab a beer with favorite professors.

Popular clubs include, shotokan karate lead by a surprisingly well known shotokan teacher, the fermentation club that makes beer and cheese and other things, and circus.
Theater is popular at Hampshire and there are often student plays.
No frats, or sororities, and no sports except for ultimate Frisbee. Their are parties most Fridays and Saturdays at Hampshire.

Pot smoking hippies, smart but disorganized and somewhat uncleanly. Really into any activist movement, some times unnecessarily so. Really liberal. White and wealthy. The other category from high school.

Great college, awesome Consortium with UMASS, Amherst, Smith, and Mt.Holyoke - great benefits with all five libraries and being able to take classes at all the other colleges. One thing I would change is that some of the teachers are very lax about due dates for them, they sometimes don't give an Eval for several months. Also, theHub (our internet place for courses etc...) is a bitch, especially during add/drop or pre-registration.

I'm not really into groups, but Hampshire has a lot of them. There's something for everyone here. Students are very socially and politically active. Students talk about everything at Hampshire, sometimes at parties you'll hear two or more students talk about a very intellectual topic or about their studies. And yes, we talk about our future, a lot.

Hampshire's philosophy is learning for your own sake. Our classes range from very small (10 students) but can be up to 50 students, I'd say on average class sizes are about 16-20 though. Environment is really friendly, teachers know students names, students call teachers by first name and have a very friendly and good relationship. Depending on the class, each student studies differently, I know I study a lot more for some courses than others. Class participation is a must at Hampshire.
My "major" is Mathematics and Education. Our college has a fantastic education program, and a pretty decent mathematics department. Through Mt.Holyoke (love the consortium) I am going to be able to get my license to teach high school mathematics.

It's a really pretty campus, even though the architecture isn't all that great. There are a lot of open grassy spaces and trees, and it smells nice in the spring. There are a lot of really nice people, but there are also some pretentious douchebags; you just need to avoid them. There's isn't a ton to do on campus outside of partying, since there's no town center you can walk to, but Northampton and Amherst center are both bus-accessible. Hampshire is definitely a "hippie school", for better and for worse. It's probably hard to be a republican, right-wing Christian conservative on campus. But on the bright side, you meet a lot of people who are really passionate about what they study.

Most people at Hampshire are hippies or hipsters, so there are a lot of dreadlocks and green hair. But if someone looks traditional in whatever way, they aren't judged or excluded or anything like that. People are pretty laid back about appearances. There's a serious lack of racial diversity, because Hampshire doesn't have a ton of money to recruit minorities; but there's a huge LGBT community. Almost everyone assumes that they'll live in a cardboard box someday.

Hampshire students have plenty of intellectual conversations outside class. It can be hard sometimes, because there aren't a ton of professors available for any given concentration. Luckily there's the five college consortium, though. Literature people should definitely take a class with Polina Barskova. Hampshire classes are very discussion-based, for the most part, although lectures play a role as well.

The best thing about Hampshire is the classes- they are small, personal and directed towards topics that really interest me. I would change the organization here. All the campus offices are disorganized and everyone is on a different page, students are virtually on their own to figure out their schedule, education and ciriculum, if you dont pay attention you could kiss key things that will really screw you over later. The school is the perfect size for me, I always see the same people everywhere, easy to make friends. When I tell people I go to Hampshire, they say, "oh, reefer madness school,eh?" I spend most of my time in my room, in the art barn, in the airport lounge and in the dining hall. Northampton and Amherst are close but not very entertaining. School pride is non-exsistent. Students most often complain about being confused and alone in their academic pursuits.

I am queer and am part of the QCA, and this is good, but not great. There could be a lot more LBGTQ events, but I think Hampshire is very good compared to most schools. I am also at the very low end of the class spectrum here, most kids have parents who can fly them to exotic countries for vacations and send them money to buy hard drugs, but being a fairly lower class student, I do not even feel left out or picked on for it, just sometimes out of place.

Hampshire is inspiring for those who want to be inspired, and it provides a drug full lazy zone for people who want to be lazy and do drugs. You get what you want to get here, you will learn how much you want to and have as much fun as you want to. you need to be self-motivated to come here! There are many other tempting events and stuff going on at all hours and all days. You have to be disiplined!

No. Many people do smoke week and do many other drugs all the time, but there is also a small subfree or partially subfree community. Many people do drop out after one, but they are usually the ones who didn't want to come to college in the first place anyhow. At Hampshire, you get what you give. People here are much more accepting than most other places, but there is still discrimination against minorities.

All my professors know my name. My favorite classes are art and writing class because I actually get to do tons of art and writing. I hate the occasional lecture class, that is why I came to Hampshire! Students are very laid back...too laid back, you can get away with murder here. My major is Studio art and Creative Writing, the requirments for the creative writing department are take whatever the hell you want, the requirements for the art department are take only art classes...therefore i am a creative writing concentor taking half and half.

There are a lot of groups and organizations, but they have a lot of the same people in all of them. Many other people dont really ever leave their room. People stay up very late, most of the campus is up until 2am on weeknights and 4am on weekends and you can count on the dorms being noisy for all of those hours. Last weekend I went to six parties and I drank, there arent many people who dont drink or do drugs to be honest, but if you are subfree there is no pressure to be sub-full, but there arent many events that are subfree.

We all smoke tons of weed, we don't do work or go to class, we all drop out after the first year, are all politically correct and activists, we all respect everyone else no matter of race, sexuality, gender or class.

Hampshire is small in the scheme of things (especially since it's literally down the street-a few miles-from the University of Massachusetts). It's small in the sense that after a few years you're able to recognize most of the professors' names and most of the students' faces. It's small in the sense that generally you know all of the buildings, where they are, and what's in them. It's small in the sense that it can be very insular. It can be a bubble. A lot of people forget there is an outside world, but there are surrounding communities with a lot to offer.

Hampshire students like to hide and/or ignore their privilege. With a lot of students, this means they pretend like they don't come from money and comfort. With a lot of students, this means they think racism or sexism don't exist at Hampshire. There are a lot of students, however, who try to hold themselves accountable and the institution accountable and try to initiate dialog and create a culture of accountability.

Two of the best/greatest/most popular events at Hampshire involve gender-fucking: Drag Ball and the Mustachio Bachio. By far the greatest event is Easter Keg Hunt, which admittedly involves alcohol. Is looked at with ill-feelings by the administration. Is completely student-run, student-initiated, and in some ways a coalescing of secret meetings. But when else do you find young folks out in the woods, hanging out together, in the hundreds at 10 o'clock in the morning?

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